How To Write a Business Pitch
Building a business from the ground up takes more than having strong core ideas. You also need to secure capital to fund your business and get it running. Getting people to invest in your business is a great way to secure that capital. But if you want to get investors in on your business idea, you need to know how to write a business pitch.
If you’ve ever watched Shark Tank, you know that making a pitch means more than just talking about why your business is a good idea. You need to be able to prove to potential investors that your business is going to make a profit. This means doing your research, fine-tuning the details of your business, and communicating in an effective and compelling way.
How Do You Create a Successful Business Pitch?
No one is born knowing how to write a business pitch. Business pitching is a skill — and, as with any skill, the best way to perfect it is to practice. The perfect business pitch incorporates elements from your overall business plan into a written document that potential investors can review and reference when making investment decisions. Ideally, in includes everything investors would need to make a decision, from information on expected profit margins to an exit strategy if things fall apart. Let’s take a look at some of the elements of a successful business pitch.
Pinpoint and Study Your Potential Customers
The first step to writing an effective pitch is to research your potential clients. Investigate things like:
Their average net worth
The types of products they’re willing to spend money on
What your potential clients expect from brands they work with
What they do for fun
What their core values are
The more you know about your potential customers, the more you can make a case for how your product or service will benefit them. You may even consider including an outline of your potential customer profiles in your business pitch so that curious investors can get to know your prospective clients.
Know Your Competition
In addition to getting to know your potential customers, you also need to get to know your competition. Get to know the big players in your target market, including:
How much they’re charging for similar products or services
What their business model looks like
What their business is worth (if that information is available)
What materials they use to create their product
The more you get to know your competition, the more you can visualize how your prospective business fits into the marketplace. You can also better understand how your business differs and begin to craft a business identity that differentiates you from others in your industry.
Craft the Perfect Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a succinct summary of your potential business. The idea behind this type of pitch is that it is so direct and to-the-point that you could present it to a potential investor in the amount of time it takes to get through an elevator ride.
An elevator sales pitch has a few different purposes. One purpose is that it gets you used to talking about your business quickly. If you attend networking events in the future, you’ll want to know how to discuss your business in an expedited manner. Elevator pitches can also be used as an introductory section in a larger pitch.
Think of your elevator pitch like a TL;DR section on a webpage. If potential investors don’t have time to read your entire pitch, what are the key points you need them to take away?
Communicate Clearly Why Your Business Is Worthwhile
The bread and butter of your business idea pitch is explaining to investors why your business idea is a good one. This is the section of your sales pitch where you’ll want to show off your persuasive writing skills. If you sell a product, for example, you need to talk about what the product is and why people are going to want to invest money in it. Get a feel for the type of entrepreneurship you’re asking people to invest in, and explain why your business matters.
Let Investors Know Why Your Business Is Different
For your business to succeed, it can’t just be a cookie-cutter duplicate of other businesses on the market. You need something to make your business stand out — and you need to communicate that to your investors.
Brainstorm anything and everything that makes your brand different from your competitors. This could include things like the quality of your product, the cost of what you’re selling, your brand’s ethos, and your business model. By finding ways in which your business is unique, you can show investors why you stand out and why your business is likely to succeed in your industry.
Prove to Potential Investors Why You Can Be Trusted With Money
Just as a bank needs to know your credit score before giving you a loan, so too do investors need to know you can be trusted with money before they’re willing to give you theirs.
One of the best ways to prove to investors that you can be trusted with money is to invest a little bit of your own money into starting your business and have a breakdown on hand for how that money was spent and what the profits were for that money. Consider investing in solutions to grow your business a little bit first so that you can provide proof that your business idea is a lucrative one and that you understand how to use capital wisely.
Use Visual Aids To Tell a Compelling Story
How you present information is almost as important as the information itself. Visual aids help investors picture your business better. Visual aids may include:
Product demonstration videos
Product images
Brand logos, fonts, or colors
Infographics
Graphs and charts
Visual aids make your presentation look professional while communicating more than words can do on their own.
Ensure You’ve Gone Over Every Detail of Your Business Plan
The last step to writing the perfect pitch is to make sure you have detailed your business plan in full. Any information in your business plan should also be outlined in your sales pitch. Include financial estimates, payback information, and estimated timelines.
Check with your leadership team, and practice your sales pitch on family and friends. If there are any questions they ask that your pitch doesn’t effectively answer, revise until it does.
Are You Ready To Take Your Business to the Next Level?
Whether you’re creating an email sales pitch or are getting ready to step onto the pitch deck with some major investors, it’s crucial that you understand how to make a pitch before you take your business to the next level.
Get a handle on your business, including estimated profit potential, marketing techniques, and prospective customers. The more you understand your business inside and out, the more successful you will be when trying to pitch the business to potential investors.
Remember that practice makes perfect. This is especially true if you’re trying to use a written pitch to prepare for a physical presentation. The more you practice your elevator pitch, and the more you get used to referencing your written pitch and your business plan in person, the more comfortable you will be when talking to investors and securing finances for your business.
